I've said this before, and I'll say it again: I am not a scientist, nor do I pretend to be one. However, that's never going to stop me from asking serious questions to those people who do claim or pretend to be professional scientists. Recently an atheist friend (probably former friend, to be technically correct. I think he "unfriended" me after this exchange) asserted in our discussion as a statement with authority that neuroscientists have pretty much figured out how the human brain works. Really? I thought. It's been my considered opinion for some time now that we humans aren't nearly as smart as we think. So I asked my now-former friend what I thought was a pretty simple and straightforward question: how does our brain store a memory? I do know how computers manage the feat but for humans, I can only guess. Most people understand that computers mimic the human brain in several respects. However, as a former developer, I know quite a bit about how computers go about performing their job, and the ways in which computers and the human brain are quite different. Computers and humans both have memory, meaning an ability to recall historical information for use in current and future decision-making. When we work in a computer program, our efforts are only stored temporarily in that computer's memory. For our work to become persistent and thus made available for future use, we must take specific action to save our effort in the current session to the computer's hard drive. Otherwise, when we close the browser and turn off the machine, our work is lost … [Read more...]
The origin of the universe
Once upon a time, some of the smartest people in the world thought the universe might have always existed in its current state, hence the name steady state theory was given to the idea of an eternal universe that has always existed in more or less its current form. Aristotle. Bertrand Russell. Sir Fred Hoyle. These men were certainly not stupid. In fact, they were among the most brilliant intellectuals of their respective eras. Coincidentally, all three of these men were atheists. They believed our allegedly "fine-tuned" universe was eternal in part because there was insufficient scientific evidence, at least in their minds, for them to believe otherwise. But they also believed the universe had always existed as it currently is because of the implications created by the alternative, a fine-tuned universe that once had a beginning. Hoyle famously said, Some super-calculating intellect must have designed the properties of the carbon atom; otherwise the chance of my finding such an atom through the blind forces of nature would be utterly minuscule. A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question. Clearly, the idea of an eternal universe has more appeal than the idea of a fine-tuned universe produced from absolute nothingness, possibly because it is less complex. Fred Hoyle … [Read more...]
Dr. Ben Carson for President
There are quite a few excellent candidates for President in 2016, but I have a personal favorite, Dr. Ben Carson. Please don't misunderstand -- for example, I like both Scott Walker and Dr. Rand Paul well enough and think either of them could also be a good man for the job...just not the best man for the job. Ditto Mike Huckabee. I like that Huckabee supports the Fair Tax. However, without reading details of his plan to reform the tax system, I'm confident that Dr. Carson will likewise simplify our tax code. What gives me this confidence? Radical simplification is absolutely essential in order to create new economic growth. Dr. Carson is obviously a very smart man, and after reading his editorial essays and listening to his speeches, I am very confident his primary objective will be solving our problems, rather than consolidating his political power. In my opinion, what is usually identified as his greatest weakness as a candidate is also Dr. Carson's greatest strength -- he's a medical doctor, not a professional politician by any stretch of the imagination. Dr. Carson has never held any political office, in fact. So he's not a polished politician. He's not "politically correct." However, Dr. Carson is a brilliant thinker, and a terrific public speaker -- very articulate without a teleprompter, as this inspiring speech he gave at the prayer breakfast demonstrated. And he is a man accustomed to hard work - and a man known for getting things done. For example, Dr. Carson became internationally famous after leading a team of his fellow neurosurgeons in the … [Read more...]
The Pearl: 2 May 2015
Biggest thing I learned my first year in the NFL is nobody gives a crap about what you did last week. The league is about what have you done for me now. That's the NFL. It's also our culture. So you keep working hard because that's the biggest truth about football. -- Andrew Luck Once upon a time, while arguing about a call with the referee during a game, coach Jerry Glanville famously claimed that the initials of the NFL really meant "Not For Long" rather than "National Football League" because a bad call could cost someone his job. And it's obviously true. The NFL Player's Association has estimated that the average length of a player's career is 3.5 years. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell replied: There is a little bit of a misrepresentation or a misunderstanding on that. Frequently, it is said that the average career is about 3.5 years. In fact, if a player makes an opening day roster, his career is very close to six years…If you are a first-round draft choice, the average career is close to nine years. That 3.5-year average is really a misrepresentation. What it adds is a lot of players who don’t make an NFL roster and it brings down the average. Only the best of the best football players make it into the NFL, and then mostly because of their God-given, natural athletic talent. However, the right to stay there must be earned every day, by preparation and hard work. … [Read more...]
To whom would an atheist pray?
I can understand how a person can become an atheist -- after all, in my book Divine Evolution, I described how I came to believe in God, after at least a decade of materialistic, apathetic agnosticism created by my advanced education. Like many atheists have done, I came to believe that much of what I learned in school conflicted with the "Young Earth Creationism" worldview to which I was indoctrinated at an early age, and so I discarded my previously held religious beliefs in favor of nothing. Strangely enough however, at any point during this period I now call my apathetic agnosticism, if you'd asked me if I believed in ghosts, my answer would have quickly been something along the lines of, "Absolutely. My friend's family owns a house that I'm sure is haunted, and I've been there many times. I have personally experienced ghosts." Personal experience can have a very powerful impact on someone's worldview, I can attest. At the same time, I would have equivocated on the same question asked about God and given a much different answer because of my lack of personal experience with God at that time. In retrospect, it now occurs to me that my acceptance of the "reality" of a supernatural ghost and simultaneous rejection of a supernatural God seems a bit silly. To be brutally honest though, I really wasn't putting a whole lot of thought into existential questions at that point in my life. Quite frankly, furthering my professional career and raising a family were much higher priorities for me. Rarely if ever did I go to church during that extended period of my … [Read more...]
